ROS Linking errors using boost::filesystem library using C++ under linux

Question

I get the following errors:

CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `boost::filesystem3::path::codecvt()':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/path.hpp:377: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::path::wchar_t_codecvt_facet()'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `directory_iterator':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:594: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::directory_iterator_construct(boost::filesystem3::directory_iterator&, boost::filesystem3::path const&, boost::system::error_code*)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `boost::filesystem3::path::codecvt()':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/path.hpp:377: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::path::wchar_t_codecvt_facet()'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `path<boost::filesystem3::directory_entry>':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/path.hpp:134: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::path_traits::dispatch(boost::filesystem3::directory_entry const&, std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >&, std::codecvt<wchar_t, char, __mbstate_t> const&)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `is_directory':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:223: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::status(boost::filesystem3::path const&, boost::system::error_code*)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `boost::iterator_facade<boost::filesystem3::directory_iterator, boost::filesystem3::directory_entry, boost::single_pass_traversal_tag, boost::filesystem3::directory_entry&, int>::operator++()':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:630: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::directory_iterator_increment(boost::filesystem3::directory_iterator&, boost::system::error_code*)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `boost::filesystem3::path::codecvt()':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/path.hpp:377: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::path::wchar_t_codecvt_facet()'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `is_directory':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:223: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::status(boost::filesystem3::path const&, boost::system::error_code*)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `~dir_itr_imp':
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:563: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::dir_itr_close(void*&, void*&)'
/usr/include/boost/filesystem/v3/operations.hpp:563: undefined reference to `boost::filesystem3::detail::dir_itr_close(void*&, void*&)'
CMakeFiles/ndt_visualiser.dir/src/fromFile.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0':
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:214: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:215: undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:216: undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'

I've seen quite a few posts with similar errors. In pretty much all of those posts (e.g. Linking Boost Library in Linux) it seems the solution is, that you need to add the -lboost_filesystem and -lboost_system flags. I've tried adding these as lflags or cflags to the manifest.xml, but that changes absolutely nothing. And I've tried adding something to the CMakeLists.txt of my package, but I guess I was doing that wrong.

So any ideas?

I'm not sure how CMake handles libraries, but generally linkers want their input files in reverse dependency order. So if file `A` contains code depending on library `L`, then `L` have to be _after_ `A` when linking. — Some programmer dude, Aug 04 '12 at 12:31
Do you have `boost_filesystem` installed? `libboost-filesystem-dev` or `libboost-all-dev` — Xyand, Aug 04 '12 at 13:24

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 05 '12 at 05:20

You'll need to add lines like the following to your CMakeLists.txt:

rosbuild_add_boost_directories()
rosbuild_link_boost(ndt_visualizer filesystem system)

See http://www.ros.org/wiki/rosbuild/CMakeLists#rosbuild_link_boost for some more details.

Adding lines to the lflags or cflags in you manifest affects other packages linking against yours, not yours linking against others.

In the future, ROS questions are better asked on ROS Answers per the Support Guidelines

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '12 at 03:00

Just as a small follow-up, I was having a problem with undefined references to something involving file statuses and error codes.

The problem came up with the ordering library linking ("less dependent" libraries come after "more dependent" libraries, at least with GCC). My project used a custom library whcih was dependent on Boost.Filesystem and yaml-cpp. Before, I had my custom library linked after the boost libraries, bu that did not work. I had to fix it by making sure that boost was linked afterwards:

rosbuild_add_boost_directories()
rosbuild_add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${SRCS})
target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} custom_lib yaml-cpp)
rosbuild_link_boost(${PROJECT_NAME} filesystem system)

ROS Linking errors using boost::filesystem library using C++ under linux

2 Answers2